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One lone sunflower remains.
Xcel's Valmont Coal plant in the background.
Whatever one may think about the issue of burning coal, extending Xcel's Franchise Agreement with the City of Boulder, or about climate change and Xcel's level of contribution to it, one thing we should all easily be able to agree on, is that Sunflowers are good. 




 
 
What kind of jokes will you tolerate? Racial ones? Sexist ones? Ten thousand knock knock jokes from a 3-year-old? It dawned on me this weekend, that I draw the line - at ecosystem jokes. At unabashed, it's ok to destroy because we are human, type of jokes.

 
 
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I just celebrated my 38th birthday. I enter the next year with some sadness as I look around at the world and the culture that I live in. I remember learning when I was young, about how that evil German was a master of propaganda - how he somehow used it to win over the people. As a child, I remember thinking, "How could the people be so stupid - so duped?" But when I look around at my own culture, or the dominant one that I live in the midst of, I see that we are just as duped and perhaps even more stupid. 
 
 
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Living in a society that insists on progress towards mass suicide is, to say the least, disconcerting. We insist on subsidizing a food system that produces poisonous food that gives everybody diabetes. We subsidize the farmers that grow that "corn" through financial handouts and through even more insidious means like building ever-more dams to provide the water that is spewed randomly into the air to water the junk food crops. 

 
 
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This hidden Columbine, took my breath away.
Having been out of the professional gardening world for around a year, and having just taken a walk through my wild forest garden, bursting with hidden flowers, many of them edible, I notice that my garden aesthetic is entirely, unshakably changed - for the better. There is a Landscape Imperative, and in this dying world, we gardeners have to meet it. 
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Wild rose.
 
 
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I just found these websites for free online garden planning software. I have no idea if they are good . If anyone wants to try them out and write a review, please be in touch: Free Garden Planning Software at I Love Free Software. 


I'm also interested in hearing about other garden planning software that people like. 

 
 
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Weed cloth hidden under layers of decomposed matter. I almost planted bulbs right on top! It was so deep I didn't even know it was there.
Have I mentioned, I hate weed cloth.  In this picture, you can see what happens after just a few years.  The fabric is buried several inches below the surface.  It has become covered in dirt and is now a breeding ground for, you guessed it, weeds.  Weed cloth just doesn't work!   At the same time, it prevents your plants from growing proper roots, your soil from being healthy, and you from planting new plants without removing it or cutting holes in it.  Have I mentioned, I hate weed cloth?  

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More weed fabric hidden under layers of dust, debris, and years of decomposed mulch.
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This new topsoil should be mixing into the soil but is prevented from improving what's below because of the weed cloth. Worms, microbes and proper interface are blocked. The soil below becomes packed and depleted.
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This is what weed fabric looks like when you first install it. Mulch will be placed over in an attempt to hide it, but will constantly slide off the slippery weed cloth.
That said, there are times when weed fabric is appropriate.  For example, in high density vegetable gardens where your sole purpose is t grow food without using chemical herbicides or spending tons of time weeding.  In this case, heavy duty weed fabric can be used over pathways and rows just up to the plants.  Keep weed cloth clean of debris - this isn't necessarily pretty but it will do the trick. Otherwise, it just becomes a layer in the soil, and a disruptive one at that.  Your soil still needs to breath however.  Worms and other creatures still need to come up to the surface to mix the nutrients and organic matter around and to fluff up the soil.  You might consider removing it for your winter crops or to add anew layer of compost.  I have little experience with this high intensity use of weed cloth.  Can anyone add their personal observations?